The present invention relates to the process of making coke; more specifically, to the prevention of coke buildup on the bench floor located on the pusher side of a coke oven battery as a result of coke oven spillage.
To process coal into coke, it is necessary to bake coal in the absence of air. To make industrial quantities of coke, a series of coke ovens are used, linearly aligned to form a coke oven battery. Coal is deposited in an oven through a plurality of holes in the roof of each oven. The oven is then sealed off and heat is applied. Each oven of a battery has a door on each side of the oven. After the coal is sufficiently heated or coked, the doors are removed from each side of a coke oven and a ram from a pusher machine is projected into one side of the oven, commonly referred to as pusher side, causing the process coal or coke to be ejected from the other side of the oven. The coke is then collected and transported to a quenching facility.
When the oven door on the oven pusher side is removed, a portion of the oven contained coke spills therefrom onto a bench floor which is adjacent to and extends the length of the coke oven battery. In addition, during the return stroke of the pusher ram, residual coke in the oven collects on the back face of the ram. As the ram journeys out of the oven, the residual coke is deposited along the bench floor. Coke removed from a coke oven during the return stroke of the ram is commonly referred to as coke oven pullback.
The coke which is deposited on the bench floor during the return stroke of the pusher ram creates a dust-ladden environment in the proximate area. Conventional means of collecting this coke has employed manual labor, thereby exposing the laborer to extremely high concentrations of dust posing a health hazard to the laborer. In addition, the coke which is deposited on the bench floor is of a relatively high temperature, posing an additional threat of serious bodily injury to laborers assigned to maintain the bench floor. The coking process generates by-product toxic gases, some of which may linger in the bench area posing a further health hazard to the laborer.
This invention eliminates the necessity of having a laborer maintain the bench floor on the pusher side of a coke oven battery.